The Divinity of All Creatures

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/opinion/letters/birds-prey-rodents.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Praise Song for the Unloved Animals” (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, May 27):

Like a psalmist, Margaret Renkl invokes the divinity of sentient beings’ role in the thread of life. While we malign the vulture and field mouse, bat and mosquito, as pests and vermin, these creatures fulfill the cycle of life — to our benefit — as predator or prey.

Ignorance and fear mutate these creatures into adversaries, and we lose; we miss the miraculous drama cycling around us. Who but the circling vulture would be willing to “devour cockroaches and carrion,” as Ms. Renkl writes?

I’m about to release an orphaned field mouse rescued from my cat. I pray the mouse will die of old age, and yes, perhaps at the end, be finished off by the swift brutality of a vulture returning her to the continuing cycle.

My greater hope is that she will never enter a home with humans, their glue or snap traps set.

Lorraine SamuelsBrewster, N.Y.